Oh Val, your pictures are stunning! I would have a hard time picking a favorite, each one is beautiful. What kind of camera did you use? I woke up to 5 inches of another form of precipitation!!! Springtime in the Rockies :) thanks for sharing.

What a Happy springtime note to find in my "mailbox" this cloudy, thundery, water-logged morning!! It was supposed to be sunshine and soccer, and now I think it will be brunch at home and an episode or two of Murdoch Mysteries (our favorite ACORN find of all time). It's set in Toronto, 1904, and is sweet and quaint and with such wonderful loyal characters, despite the obligatory corpse or two.

Your photos are simply so sweet and cheerful---I just told Chris as I looked that out of all the flowers I love, I've never seen a real-live Lily of the Valley. Pictures galore, book mentions as on a lady's lapel or clutched in a gloved hand (perhaps pressed with an innocent secrecy into prayer-book or a slim volume of Shelley), but never a real plant, pot, bouquet or sprig. They have such a quaint small innocent grace to them, and I know they have a distinctive, if elegant scent, for I've seen the perfume mentioned, as well.

Such a sweet post and I'm glad to add your cheerful self to this cloudy morning---do you take your French Toast with powdered sugar or without? Coffee or tea? Jammies de rigueur.

Thank you all so much. :) The picture-taking certainly makes the long walks more fun.

Lorraine, thank you. You ahve a happy spring too. ♥

Monique, thank you. I think we're just south enough here to have so much in bloom so early. I know even ninety minutes north of here, my parents don't have all this yet. You will be in rapture as the season begins, I know. :)

Jenny, it's a Canon PowerShot--Number A2600. One of my former professors was from Montana and always talked about the long winters. . .snow through May. Just think, though: Your entire spring is still ahead of you. :)

Rachel, thank you. :) Your days sounds cozy and sweet, as ever. Lily of the Valley really are such dear little flowers. They were my aunt Laurie's wedding flower, which always seems most appropriate for her. ♥ I hope you get to see them someday.

Lisa, yes--I can see that. :) Archhitecture is just fascinating--all the different ways to design things, the differences in texture/shingles/siding, the colors and trims. . . .Remember you, Cheryl, and I wandering around just oohing and ahhing at the gorgeous old buildings around the Boston marina?! Heaven. :)

"At any given moment, no matter where you are, there are hundreds of things around you that are interesting and worth documenting."

~ Keri Smith

"I think that one must always be in love. To be in love with a person is, of course, ideal, but you can be in love with a flower, a tree, an idea. . . ."

~ Gloria Vanderbilt

"BE KIND WHENEVER POSSIBLE.

IT IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE."

~ THE DALAI LAMA

"Have a heart that never hardens,

and a temper that never tires,

and a touch that never hurts."

~ Charles Dickens

"Love is, above all, the gift of oneself." ~ Jean Anouilh

"Celebrate people who are in your life-- past and present, close by as well as far away. Thank everyone who contributes to your sense of well-being and joy, whether you know them personally or not. Every day, think of all the people who help make your life so rich and rewarding."

~ Alexandra Stoddard

"I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert,

But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime."

~ "In a Big Country" by Big Country

"If you are any good at all, you know you can be better."

~ Lindsey Buckingham

"What thou lovest well remains,

the rest is dross ~

What thou lov’st well shall not be reft from thee ~

What thou lov’st well is thy true heritage."

~ Ezra Pound

"Let us make memories carefully of all good things, rejoicing in the wonderful truth that while we are laying up for ourselves the very sweetest and best of happy memories, we are at the same time giving them to others." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

"There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other's cooking & say it was good."

~ Brian Andreas

"There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing." ~ Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

"Years ago, my mother used to say to me --she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be --' She always called me Elwood. 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh, so smart or oh, so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. And you may quote me."

~ Elwood P. Dowd in Mary Chase's play Harvey

"One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore faith in yourself." ~ Lucille Ball

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." ~ Anatole France

"A house with Daffodils in it is a house lit up, whether or not the sun be shining outside." ~ A. A. Milne

"When something is too beautiful or too terrible or even too funny for words, then it is time for poetry."

My Beloved Pink & White Garden :)

"Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great, make you feel that you too can become great." ~ Mark Twain************

"Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid of standing still."~ Chinese proverb

After My First 5K :)

During My First Half Marathon :)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~* "Is life worth so much trouble?"

* "It depends what one wants in return."

~ Daughter to Student in The Ghost Sonata by August Strindberg~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot."

~ Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's, spoken by Holly Golightly

"When we have sampled much and have wandered far and have seen how fleeting and sometimes superficial a lot of the world is, our gratitude grows for the privilege of being part of something we can count on—home and family and the loyalty of loved ones. We come to know what it means to be bound together by duty, by respect, by belonging."

~ Thomas S. Monson

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.

These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.

Beautiful people do not just happen.”

~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Death: The Final Stage of Growth

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.”